75 gallon tank build

I picked up my 75 gallon tank today and can officially start my build thread- woohoo!

At this point I have a lot of equipment on the way plus a lot here already. My biggest remaining question will be the power heads I use, but I'll get to that later. For now, here's what I've got"

75 gallon tank
150 lbs PO live rock (which was actually sitting in a cold salt water tub for 2 years so it is just uncured but sterile rock at this point)
40 lbs aragonite sand (a bit above sugar) and 20 lbs bigger grain aragonite (I like to keep a somewhat thin layer that I clean a lot)
2x250 PFO pendants with a PFO ballast to power them both (got this used off the same dude in eugene with the rock)
200 watt jager heater
the biggest marineland biowheel filter (I am sumpless... keeps it simpler for now)

On the way:
Acua C Remora with mag drive and overflow fitting and the preskimmer (I am really hoping this thing kicks ass bc I put the most money into this)
2 XM 250 watt mogul halide bulbs
Apex Lite controller

The dust is still settling and the rock is just piled in. I will cure it all then get creative with it. Patience is the plan for this tank since it is starting out so new

so thats how it looks as of now. I have a bunch of work to do to hang the lights, cure the rock, set up a good flow pattern and then designing the rockwork.

Does anyone have suggestions on powerheads for this system? I have 2 MP 10's on my 46 gallon tank but am thimking I can use one of those plus another powerhead or two. I like a fair amount of flow, I want to try and eliminate dead spots... there will be a little SPS in here but not a ton, mostly LPS

Dang man you dont waste any time.its already full of rock and water.. did you use any sand or water from another tank to seed it?and 500 watts of halides..are you gonna rock any actinics on the lighting or do some nice 20000 kelvin bulbs?as far as flow i am a big fan of the maxi jets and there mods.i know i am redundant but they work.now if they only had the magnet mount then things would be golden.although the MP series seems to do a fine job so maybe just buy another one.i want to see the remora in action as well as its build as it sounds pretty sweet.to advanced for me.mag drive and all.

haha yeah I was ready to get this thing up and running I did the easy part... just rinsed all that sand and rinsed the rock. I am not going to seed it for about a week or so... I am considering buying one of those bottles of the bacteria stuff (i am sure you know what i'm talking about but i dont know how to exactly explain it) to help with a quicker cycle. Would you suggest that or just letting it roll by itself?

I do want to put actinics over this some how. I am putting up a 4 foot beam behind the tank to attach and suspend my pendants from. Then I need to somehow figure out how to add actinics in. I am open for suggestions! I ordered the 20k mogul bulbs and those should shimmer pretty good but i need the extra oomph of actinics, esp for the dawn/dusk lighting.

So... I assumed the mage drive was just some better internal drive... now looking at what you wrote and looking online it looks like it might be some external pump? Hmmm... well, i guess I'll see when I get it. I hope it isnt too complicated! But hopefully it will pull stuff out of the water really well. I have been wanting to try one of these for a while. I like my aquamaxx HOBs for my 46 and 56 but didnt think it could muscle up to a 75.

I'll look into the maxijets but I dont know how to mod them...

the maxi jets come with the propeller and gaurd to convert them into the circulation pump.if you wanna try one out let me know i have all the models from 400-1200 and you can see if you like em before making a purchase.i really dig em as they are pretty small,powerfull,and durable.the 400 does 500 gallons an hour then going up to the 1200 wich does 1300 galllons an hour.if i had an excess of funds i would grab one of the models that has the magnetic mount i just havent got one for myself yet as the maxi jets can easily convert to a return pump to a circulation pump in a matter of minutes and they have a pretty good head highth as a MJ1200 pushes 6feet.not to mention you can get 2-3 for the price of one of the more expensive models..no i am not a sales rep.just saying.

and once you have a pic or some more detail on the mounting of the halides it will be hard to judge a good way of mounting an actinic.i am thinking you are going to want to grab a T-5 HO retro fit kit and add a duell tube 4foot bulb setup to compliment the halides and like you said dustk and what not..also during the super hot months of summer you can change out the actinics for 10000 kelvins and rock those instead of the halides until the heat subsides.

excellent point on the HO's and summer use. That garage room can't be cooled, though it DOES stay very cool... however, that was before I got a bunch of hot equipment in there. I have a lot of planning/work to do I'll update with more info on my lighting plans soon. If I am ambitious enough today i'll get the mount up on the wall...

Thats kind of funny. I just picked up a used 75 gallon and stand and hood. The only other thing it came with was a aqua c remora with mag 3 pump and surface skimmer box. I had it up for sale for awhile on craigslist $60. No takers. So i hooked it up on my quarantine system to check it out. Wow. Its the best HOB out there by far. Nice skim, quiet, no fluctuations, no bubbles. Sleek and modern. Best venturi design out there and it cant be copied, its trademark/copyright. I am sooo glad no one bought it, i wouldnt sell it for double that now.

Dont forget portlands craigslist. Kyle and phil both got calcium reactor setups this week. Precsion marine. I can always bring stuff down when i come on tuesdays

omg I just shelled out a TON for that skimmer. I could not find any used... damn... well, I am glad to know it works as advertised. It'll prove its worth in the long run

OK, the tank is now salt water, 1.025... everything in there should be sterile- the rock and the sand. The rock may have something on it but it was in a cold tub of salt water for two years... nasty water- i soaked those for a week in a salt bath and rinsed them off before putting them into my tank.

So now I need to get these things growing live goodness. What is the best way to proceed? My plan is to scoop out a bunch of the aragonite gravel from my 56 gallon tank and spread that around the sand bed and mix it in. I'll also siphon water straight out of the gravel so it has lots of that crap and organisms. I assume this would be a good way to start the tank to a living state. Yes? No?

I assume at some point I will then want to crush up some live rock with coraline on it to seed the rock and dose with purple up. Any thoughts on that and when to start?

Also wondering when I should introduce the first crabs, snails, food, etc. Since there's no algae or anything live in there now I assume i cant put hermits in yet???

I'll try to get the lights up in the next week but then I am out of town for a week so I probably wont run light on the tank for two weeks. The one pictured is an extra I had laying around

if tempereture is up then everything you have stated will certainly jump start the cycle.if you want you can come by at some point and grab some copapods if you dont already have some.as fara s the invertabrates i say resist the temptaion and give it a week at least.there is no food or bacteria to support most of the life forms you are going to want and the new rock will make this process take much longer.

sweet I will get on adding that filth! I can resist putting critters in there. I'll wait til I get back from Wisconsin... that'll give the tank a 2 week break in period.

oh i love starting new tanks without live rock, mine sat for like a month, just slowly introduced inverts, maybe a cheap damsel...

allright... I am back from my business trip and ready to get working on this tank! I have so much to do I dont know where to begin... so I may just start with figuring out some nice rockwork displays. I always put off the tough stuff like figuring out how to hang the lights and such... It doesnt help that i have major issues in some of my other tanks I need to work on too... but that's all part of the game. Better updates coming soon.

let me know if you need a hand with seting things up.i am not too far away.and dont forget that patience is a key factor in the hobby.i got some copepods for you when your ready.

thanks man... looks like i might have to nuke it though because of the water from the 56. &$^#! Safest thing to do would be to pull all the rock, set it outside to dry and freeze, pull all the sand, dry it and start over... that or let it sit for months on end and keep nuking it until I am sure there are no nudibranch eggs left. I could just let it sit... but i really dont want to wait a bunch of months while poisoning the tank... i dunno... i am trying to figure out the best course of action. If there was no risk of nudibranchs I would take the pods now That was the initial plan for the day, until it was ruined with the discovery of those damn nudibranchs in my 56... and here I was trying to set up a totally clean system.

i dont know.putting everyting outside for a freeze might not be such a bad idea.

allright... things are starting to move along.. a little... I have been doing the fun parts and buying fish for the new tank (i'll get to that in a minute). Today I wanted to get started on the rocks. They have been sitting in the aquarium for 3 weeks now with no lights. I wanted to stick some of them together to start building the foundations for the caves and such. However, I learned the stupid way that the epoxy needs to be used on dry rocks. I epoxied everything together and nothing stuck... a whole tube of that stuff wasted. But I do have a good idea of the little structures I want and I have some of the rock out drying tonight so hopefully tomorrow they will stick. There are some pics of what I was trying to do... a couple actually stuck but the rest have to be redone







I also started putting lights on for an hour a day starting yesterday. I havent gotten a hanging setup for my halide pendants so I got glass tops and 2x4's and have the lights sitting on top of the tank temporarily. Itll at least get the coraline algae growing and get my tank ready for animals.

At this point I think I'll work on the rockwork for the next couple of days and get everything inside the tank ready for animals. Then I'll get some more light on this thing and get that algae growing and toss in my hermits and snails by about new years. I have a week long business trip the first week in january- a good week to let the hermits and stuff scrounge around- and then I can start adding fish and a few coral.

as for the fish... I bought 4 fish for the new tank so far. They are in their own 29 gallow QT tank for the next month or so. I got a blue hippo tang, fairy wrasse, potters angel and tail spot blenny. I love these fish. I have always wanted a hippo tang even though i know they get ich and i'll need a bigger tank down the road. They are just so pretty and funny acting. The wrasse is just a nice solid bright color- nice spot too. The tail spot blenny is so cool. Very fun personality and very cool markings under the eye. The potters angel was a nice surprise- I was going to get a flame angel but this was available and it is a gorgeous one.

https://youtu.be/19vFIMNaL1w

In addition to those fish, I have a kole tang on order. They will all be joining my two fire fish and a pearly jawfish. I'll also get a pair of perculas or ocellaris to round out the group in the tank.

i have been wanting to try out the purple and red epoxy on some rocks.those are going to be some nice cave structures in the end.and i kinda want a potters angel at some point.i have seen some pretty sweet ones.

the epoxy needs DRY rock.. I tried again today with mostly dry rock.. bah... waste of time. But anyway, I was still able to get a few solid structures out of the deal and I made a first attempt at a rock structure. It isnt what I had really envisioned but I wanted some caves for my cave dwelling creatures (jawfish, blenny, maybe a goby) and I got some of those worked out, plus there's a big arching rock that I thought I would lay as a flat arch but I ended up making a tall cave out of it.

This is totally up for redoing but I imagine with the 10lbs of rubble that I have left over I can round out the caves to look more natural and have plenty of places to add coral. The structure on the left that sticks up will do something like that but it is going to have to change somehow. I want a tall column-like structure for fish to swim around though

DANG the rock work looks top notch.dont forget that some of your corals will come on rocks so dont overdo it. i bet that all looks even better in person i want to see the side view. on another note be carefull with those hot halides as you might want to extend and raise the 2*4s so there wont be any cracking of glass or whatnot.my Power Compacts have cracked two of my glass tops and they are only 65 watters.just a heads up.

THanks man! And thanks for reminding me about the heat on the glass. I picked up some extra 2x4's from my parents this weekend and they are still in the car... I'll get those up today so I have more height off the glass. I definitely dont want those to crack!

I'll get a side view today I cant wait to get critters in there!

ill throw a hermit and snail your way next time we meet up.i got some pods,maybe a spaghetti worm or stomatella too.

duuude all the wormy goodies you got... I want a good variety of life in here and it is about ready to go I think. I am getting pods on thursday but i'd love some of yours too... i have hermits and snails in my other tanks I could put into this one... how many should i put in while there is nothing in there? I assume now that the lights are on (i think I will start with 3 hours a day) i'll have some hair algae starting pretty soon though...

Here are shots from either end at this point. I havent figured out the white balance for these 20k bulbs yet so pardon the crazy blue...